Akers sets, then resets, state record in shot

Saira Akers resets the Virginia State record for shot put in Group 2A,.

Saira Akers, who completed her sophomore year at Floyd County High School just two days earlier, set a new Virginia High School League shot put track record for Group 2A Saturday at the state finals in Radford.

Just to prove it was not a fluke, Akers went out the next time she threw and reset the record she had just broken, tossing the ball 40 feet and one-half inch.

Twice the shot put officials called in the scoring official from VHSL to confirm what the crowd already knew: A new track record set a few minutes earlier was reset by the same high school athlete.

Akers has two more years at FCHS to better the record she set — twice — on a hot, humid day in Radford.

In other events, Daryn Hughes finished second in shot put, Caleb Agee second in 300 meter hurdles, Jade Sutherland third in discus, Chloe Phillips sixth in 3,200 meters, Olivia Beagle was seventh in 400 meters and Emily Harris eighth in 1,600 meters.

FCHS finished eighth in the 1,600 meter relay.

In overall team scores, FCHS girls finished seventh and boys tied with Goochland for 17th.

When the last FCHS runner crossed the finish line in the 1,600 meter relay — the last event in a two-day tournament interrupted at times by rain and delayed twice more than lightning strikes in the area — the 2015-2016 season of high school athletics came to an end.

So did Radford’s tenure as the site of the state track championships. Next year, the event moves to Harrisonburg.

Lots more photos and Roger Mannon’s story in the next edition of The Floyd Press.

Officials confirm and the celebrations begin as Akers walks away with a new state shot put record — for the second time in the same day.A hot, humid day in Radford took its toll.